The Giants' Suffering
by kantun90
Summary: With the arrival of the technological advanced Legos to Duplopia, the once paradisiacal island-continent has turned into a colonial enclave full of shady pioneers, enslaved workers and exploitation. The Duplos, incapable of fighting against their cruel, violent and smaller new masters, seem to be condemned to live under the servitude to the Lego Empire.
1. Chapter 1

**The Giants' Suffering**

Introduction: With the arrival of the technological advanced Legos to Duplopia, the once paradisiacal island-continent has turned into a colonial enclave full of shady pioneers, enslaved workers and exploitation. The Duplos, incapable of fighting against their cruel, violent and smaller new masters, seem to be condemned to live under the servitude to the Lego Empire. However, the seed of resistance is starting to flourish all over the land.

**RATED M**

_**Chapter I. School is over**_

His back hurts even more than his legs. He stops and opens his nostrils to inhale the dusty air of the quarry. Tiredness plays its tricks and his eyes close. The colourful landscape disappears before him. Then, in the darkness behind his eyelids appears the letter that changes his life. The words, now already one year old, still hurt.

"[…] and thus decrees that no animal might hold a person's position in the People's Viceroyalty of Duplopia."

These words preceded the physical pain with which he enters every evening the stall, where he is now made to live. The first nights there he could not sleep because of the sounds of other animals and the stink of their urine and shit. But the sleepless nights were soon over thanks to the exhaustion of carrying bricks from the quarry to the train station, from where they traveled to the port and there were loaded to huge ships that would transport them to the metropolis. The ships were the first thing that the new rulers made the Duplopians build. They used the huge bases and bricks that had been the palace of Salomon, the now imprisoned king of Duplopia. What was once a magnificent building devoted to governing fairly the lives of humans and animals, now is where the camp of the invading forces are settled: spacecrafts sitting next to AT-AT Walkers, helicopters flying over newly opened shops, roads full of trucks with building materials and the old Palace-Station turned into an ugly industrial area, where the Legos force Duplo people and animals to work burdening hours.

The moment of pause and remembrance is ended by a violent electrical shock that makes him almost throw all the bricks he is carrying on his sore back. A Lego shouts: "Back to work, you lazy beast!". He could crash him so easily if he wanted. But what would that bring? The amount of guards used by all the extractive endeavours of the Lego Empire in Duplopia is overwhelming. Many of them are members of the stormtroopers or the police, who have signed up for the colonial force in order to escape the overcrowded Legoland and earn some easy extra money. A bullet would not kill him, but hundred of laser beams and bullets would definitely turn him into a bloody hippopotamus pudding. He exhales and keeps walking towards the station. His name is Jack van Hippo. Although now he is being treated like a beast, he knows he is not one. He is a teacher. He is a proud Duplopian. He is a magnificent and strong animal. And he had decided that he has had enough.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2. An ill-fitting uniform**_

The night was quiet in the village of Porto Asquaz. Since the conquest the inhabitants of Duplopia lived under curfew: by the sunset everyone had to be home. Officer Gerts walked alone through the dimly lit narrow streets of his hometown trying to contain his urge to whistle any of the old songs that would normally have been sung at that moment in the taverns of the seaside village.

He had been in this post for almost 9 months. If one year ago someone would have told him that he would be back to the place that saw him grow up, he would have laughed at the idea. He was then a member of the King's Corps, the most elitist and prestigious members of the extensive bureaucracy of Duplopia. The function of the Corps was to protect the King and the Duplopians. What centuries ago had been an elite military unit used to unify the fractious continent, had evolve to be one of the most efficient lawmaking-and-implementing in the world. The Corps had to still protect the king but the peaceful nature of Duplopia had made that function mostly ornamental. The majority of its members listened to citizens needs and complains and developed solutions for those. That had been Gerts' job for years: sitting in his office while listening to representatives of cities and villages, sending lower-ranking bureaucrats to do field studies, compiling the information and, finally, creating laws that, hopefully, would be measured and fair. He loved his job and loved living in the palace, a place full of culture, entertainment and people. But now he was back to the salty little village of Porto Asquaz.

The choice of returning to the place that saw him born would have been a hard one if it was not for the scenario where he had to make it. The arrival of the Lego ships had been a surprise to everyone one week earlier. They quickly advanced towards the palace, leaving behind them the corpses of any Duplonian that dared to resist them. King Salomon urged everyone to stop any attack against the Legos, which thanks to their lasers was at most a heroic futility. However, some members of the Corps tried to defend the king and they were blasted in seconds. The king himself and her wife were put into a giant clone transport ship and send to Legoland. After days of fearful chaos and uncertainty, Gerds was called, with the rest of the people Duplopians in the Corps, to the royal Assembly Hall. The scene was macabre. The Legos had made a corridor with the dead members of the Corps, who were starting to rotten. On the throne of Salomon sat a pale Lego, surrounded by soldiers. The man spoke:

"My name is Lord Voldemort and I have been selected by the Council of the Lego Empire to take control of the newly established Viceroyalty of Duplopia. You have a simple choice to make in this new era: either you end up like your colleagues laying around us or you start a new bright professional life with us. The unnatural order that until today existed in this land has ended. From now on, people will rule and animals will obey. All the official posts held by animals will be taken over by people. This will be your new duty: to ensure that no animal is doing a person's job. As the most knowledgeable bureaucrats in this land, you will help this government start a new era of fairness and prosperity under the read and yellow flag of the Legos. Those of you not willing to join us, please raise your hand".

Some hands were raised. This act of bravery did not last long. After a few seconds the bodies of those members of the Corps fell into the floor after being stricken by the laser guns of the Lego soldiers.

The silence in the room was broken by new orders from the Viceroy. Hours later, after talking to many colonial officers, Gerts was sent with a dispatch of policemen to his hometown. He got into his car and was escorted by the tiny armed people through a landscape that he knew well. Helicopters and spaceships could be seen flying in the sky. The invasion was settling into Duplopia. And Gerts knew that his new job would make the process easier. He was a collaborationist. If he liked it or not was not important at the moment. His fate was not on his hands.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3. Wheezing, grunting and roaring**_

The working day starts with the sunrise. The bright colors of the quarry bricks are dim and a cold breeze accompanies the sound of alarms waking up the Duplonians. Jack van Hippo leaves the stall with his colleagues: 23 elephants, 12 horses, 5 giraffes and 2 more hippopotamuses. From another stall come the dinosaurs and two bears, who are deemed more dangerous than them and are heavily guarded by the Legos. Then come the monkeys, who live in little huts close to the barracks where the people forced laborers live. The apes are the ones in charge of installing the dynamite in the quarry, while people and some dinosaurs are used to shape the bricks. The rest of the animals are used for carrying the heavy bricks. Most of them were doctors, lawyers, teachers, shopkeepers, singers and many other jobs that did not require them to use his strength. Many of them are totally exhausted and the infirmary, called now for them veterinary ward, has direct orders to only give some pain medicine to the slaves. Those who are gravely injured travel with the bricks in a train trip to an uncertain future. Having seen the cruelty and viciousness of the Legos, Jack is sure that they are not going to a hospital.

After a meagre breakfast of seaweed and grass the sun shines making the colorful Duplonian mountains look like a giant kaleidoscope. The heavy explosions from the dynamite do not scare anyone and the constant breaking and chipping of the bricks reminds Jack of the drumming of his young pupils, arrhythmical and chaotic. However he is not anymore in front of the class trying to put order to the sound. Now he is part of this machine and his wheezing and grunting from the effort of carrying the bricks on his not-so-young back is part of the melody. How long can he last doing this? How many more bricks can he carry until his body breaks and he is sent with the train to a certain death? Is he, the Duplonian who for 25 years told his students that they had to always fight for what was right, doing what he preached? After almost one year being a slave of the Lego Empire he has lost any hope for any kind of betterment in his life. Only work and, because of it, death are present on his horizon.

Overwhelmed by these thoughts, he makes a choice. And when he makes it, his mind is freed from any sorrow, self-pity or pessimism. He has chosen freedom. He is certain that it is going to be a short-lived freedom, but at least he will die as a free hippopotamus.

He is carrying around 15 bricks when he stops close to some guards. He stops and starts wheezing. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale… His nostrils open wider and wider each time. The guards notice him and start shouting something that is covered by the mighty sound of his breathing. When he feels the first electrical shock, he shakes his cargo and the bricks fall into some stormtroopers, who are immediately smashed by them. Then, freed from the heavy weight, he charges towards any little Lego he sees. He is waiting for more electrical shocks, or bullets, or flesh penetrating laser beams. But to his surprise he is joined by roaring, trumpeting and shouting. The other animals have seen him and are attacking the guards too. He sees elephants stomping into policemen, their feet bloody from the Legos bodies' pulp. He marches towards a stormtrooper trying to reach a laser cannon and in the distance he sees two T-Rexes cutting bodies in two with their sharp teeth. Some monkeys and people have taken the guns from the dead Legos and are shooting towards an AT-AT walker, that offers resistance and causes casualties among the rebel Duplonians until a triceratops breaks one of its legs with a head charge and the legged killing machine falls into the floor, being subsequently smashed by other huge animals.

After less of 15 minutes the soundtrack of the quarry has changed completely. No more explosions, no more steps of tired animals, no more chipping and breaking of bricks. Only some moaning, some heavy breathing, some last cries of help from Legos that are quickly silenced by a shot or a blow from a Duplonian. No prisoners will be taken, decides without discussing the for too-long enslaved group of rebels. Finally Jack roars. And the roar multiplies in the mouths of his colleagues. People and animals roar and shout. The sound echoes in the mountains, the last note of a sad song with an unexpected happy ending. The musicians are now without conductor and celebrate it. But soon, after the initial euphoria, all eyes fall into Jack van Hippo, the hippopotamus, the brick carrier, the teacher, the liberated Duplonian. And he feels that a new role awaits in his life. A role he did not expect to ever having to play, but somewhat, while seeing the bodies of the dead Legos, he is sure he might be able to add to his repertoire. He is the leader of a bunch of rebels.


End file.
